Treasure Trove

On the Cover: It took decades. From the time a mission was just a gleam in scientists’ eyes, to the years of battling for funding, revising spacecraft designs, and, finally, just getting there, the pot of gold New Horizons found at Pluto has been worth the wait. On July 14, 2015, just minutes after its closest approach, New Horizons took this beautiful image of Pluto. Illuminated by the Sun, Pluto’s complex atmospheric haze layers are visible, along with the southern portions of the informally named Sputnik Planitia at top of the globe. False color has been added to this view to resemble the approximate true color blue of the popular backlit Pluto image seen at planet.ly/blueskypluto.NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute